DOUBLE IGNOMINY

The Haryana government just got served a major embarrassment when the Union Public Service Commission returned a list sent by the state government containing the names of relatives of a politician and a bureaucrat for selection to the IAS. The state government, rather conveniently, had forgotten to mention that the Central Administrative Tribunal had stayed the finalising of the names.

Sources say that the state chief secretary Depinder Singh Dhesi has received returned applications for the selection of state- cadre officers for appointment to the IAS. Apparently, the list included nominations for Dr Asha Sharma, daughter of education minister Ram Bilas Sharma; Dr Sonia Trikha, wife of the chief minister’s principal secretary Rajesh Khullar, and Dr Rakesh Talwar, an SMO posted in Raj Bhavan. The other two names are that of Gurmeet Kaur, a senior town planner, and Parmeshwar Mehra, an officer in the excise and taxation department.

To the state government’s further ignominy, this is the second time that the UPSC has returned nominations for lapses, incomplete records and other discrepancies. But apparently, the list was resent but the state government did not disclose that the matter had been stayed by the tribunal. And so it goes…